This is my new art. I've come to think of the body as a canvas... the most precious and beautiful of all canvases because it is ALIVE ! I love the impermanence of spontaneous body art. . . its fleeting nature as a work of art. . . which is why - as much as I enjoy drawing on my body - I have never seriously considered a tattoo for myself. The body is a beautiful canvas in that it is constantly changing, constantly growing new cells as others are shed, healing, moving, beating, pumping... it is ALIVE !!
As of last fall and this semester, I have been increasingly fascinated with star patterns. I grew up seeing these patterns in my hometown sky where the amount of human light pollution is minimal, where I could sit on my driveway and stare at a dark canvas full of white dust/snow/faraway fireflies/stars . . . Stars are everywhere!!
I create the beings I am about to show you by first painting directly onto the human body, photographing, and manipulating via computer. I begin each body by painting stars on top of a person's freckles and then adding to the spaces between. . . I like to think that I'm merely exposing what's already there.
The face represents the peace & serenity that comes with being of one mind with the universe~
The shoulders represent the unity of body with the universe~
The image of a being looking out across space represents the spirit & an active experience with the universe~
Whoever separated "man" and "nature" must have been half-asleep. We are so connected to the earth, the trees, the water, the sky, the stars...! We have the same veins that carry blood to every part of our body, just like trees do. We need water and room to grow, space to breathe. Our bodies are made up of almost the exact same percentage of water as Earth itself. Our eyes are perfect spheres, like small scale models of stars. . . .
The more I think about it, the more I am confident that the world really is just one big organism. I am just a small scale model of a larger whole.
( we are all made of stardust ** )
